Wednesday, September 30, 2009

I remember getting Alloy catalogues in the mail when I was younger. My mom would scoff at me when she saw those prices. I've pretty much held on to the belief that I'm not paying that much for anything from Alloy. Sometime around 2 weeks ago I went to their website and browsed the clearance section. I found these awesome boots and they'll fit perfectly into my fall wardrobe. The Ella Boots: Retail Price $42.50 Paid $14.99

I love these boots! They are so comfortable. They're lined and very warm.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

This simple look is perfect for a night at the movies, casual dinner with friends etc. The skirt is the only somewhat dramatic piece in this look. Because the skirt is bold everything else is sort of muted. Hope you like it.

Monday, September 28, 2009

As of maybe a little over 2 year ago, I fell in love with shoes. We have since developed a loving respectful relationship. I used to be a flip flop girl and in some ways I still am. At this time I do not own a pair of tennis shoes. I used to have a pair of Air Force 1's that I got as a gift maybe 5 years ago. Well needless to say those shoes have run their course and I had to dispose of them last year. So maybe that will be next "big" purchase, a pair of tennis shoes. Anyway I find it hard to resist a nice pair of quality shoes that are comfortable and inexpensive. Whenever I go to the mall I always stop into Bakers. The average price of a shoe here is around $70.00. The store is not large at all and the shoes on sale are clearly displayed. I have never spent more than $20 per pair in Bakers and I probably never will. I get a deep sense of satisfaction when something that used to cost $80 is marked down $20 and under. So today I walked into Bakers at was greeted by the nice big Sale sign and this is what I got.
Orginal Price $69.95 Paid $10.00

Savings Total :$59.95

No, I didn't need another pair of shoes nor can I think of one outfit in my closet to wear it with, but that's ok. You ever notice whenever you have an event to go to and you rush at the last minute you almost always end up spending more money? Well that is what Frugal Chic Depot is against. This shoe may not be worn for weeks, maybe months, but gauranteed the perfect outfit for the shoe will come. Bakers usually have these types of deals on their shoes. Just 4 weeks ago I bought these shoes to go to the Jamie Foxx concert and I paid $19.95 for them. They were originally $89.95

And here I am in them

Lesson for today: Even if the store seems outside of your budget, try it once or twice. You may be missing out on great bargains.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Before I decided to venture out of my usual style comfort zone, the concept of colour was somewhat of a foreign concept. My outfits usually consisted of the basic black and my idea of adding color was wearing a colored tank underneath my black. I thought, I just couldn't figure it out, but I now realize it was just sheer fear. It’s the fear of making incorrect choices and end up looking all wrong. I really like to watch HGTV on a regular basis. Home style is still just style. There is a show called Color Splash where the host helps homeowners choose the colors in their room based on the options on the color wheel. BINGO

I then realized that the color combinations were already made for me by Sir Isaac Newton way back in the eighteenth century. The color wheel basically arranges the colors based on their chromatic relationship. It’s headlined by the primary colours red, blue and yellow. It then spears off into the secondary colors which are achieved by mixing two primary colors (ex. green, orange, and purple). This is further broken down into tertiary, complementary and analogous colors which we will discuss in Parts 2 and 3.

This is my lame attempt at illustrating how you can mix your colors just by varying the lightness of the primary and secondary colors.
For example, in the middle is a basic red. By adding white to the red it creates a complimentary color to the original red tone, as shown to the right of the red. By decreasing the white, it also creates another complimentary color or shade of the original as shown to the left of the red. Easy right? You don't have to include three or more of these in your ensemble; even two of them should still work to brighten up your outfit.Of course there are several different options in between, but this should point you in the general direction.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

I recently visited Charlotte Russe in my local mall in search of accessories. I just so happened to glance over to the shoe section and saw they had shoes on sale for $4.95 and up. So naturally my frugal radar went off and I was able to snag a few pairs. 2 of the pairs I bought were size 8's. I wear a size 9 usually and sometimes 8.5 depending on the designer. I don't think I'll be ok with buying shoes on their website because the sizes seem to vary so much. Anyhow here’s my loot.

Friday, September 25, 2009

The October 2009 Issue of Cosmopolitan featured The Cosmo Beauty Awards. I look forward to these types of reviews because they usually feature drug store buys. I will use my Clinique, MAC and Dior makeup for those truly special occasions but let's be real that stuff is just way too costly for everyday wear. I don't wear make-up every single day, so by everyday waer I mean, church, the occasional party or get together with friends here and there. Based on these recommendations I’ll be trying these products. Naturally, I’ll do a follow-up review on these items in the future.

L-R: 1. Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship, 2. Herbal Essesences Hydralicious Conditioner, 3. Cover Girl Lash Blast, 4. Maybelline Dream Mouse Blush.
1. I've been reading on different blogs so many praises in the name of Long Term Relationship or LTR for short. According to Cosmo" this elixir fixes frayed edges and prevents new ones.." Well as you may be able to see from this post my ends are in serious need of some TLC.
2. My mom loves loves loves the Hello Hydration formula. I liked it as well but I'm open to try new things.
3. Cover Girl Lash Blast has also been getting rave reviews on the net. My local CVS has them for sale for $5.00.I'm looking forward to "major volume to wimpy lashes."
4. I haven't heard much about Maybelline Dream Mousse Blush. I'm willing to give it a try because Walgreens has Maybelline at buy one get one free till Saturday night.

I really do not enjoy wrestling with Old Navy's sale racks. Quite frankly I don't really think their clearance is that much of a bargain at all. I usually have to struggle through hundreds of pieces of clothing that are not in my size anyway. While walking through the mall, I noticed they had 50% of clearance items so I figured, why not go take a look. Today, I headed to the shoe section instead and walked out with these beauties.Each pair was on clearance for $10.99 each so basically I got them on a BOGO type of deal.
Leather Moccasins Orginal Price: $24.50 Paid 5.49

Leather Moccasins Orginal Price: $24.50 Paid 5.49

TOTAL SAVINGS $38.01
SIDENOTE: Both of these shoes are online right now for $20.00 each. TAKE THAT OLD NAVY !!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

So today was the day I had been waiting for. I had my NY&Co savings pass in hand and I anticipated doing some serious damage at NY&Co. I must say I was a little disappointed today. As some of you may already know, I refuse to pay retail. NY&Co did not have a very large clearance section this time. I voiced my disappointment to cashier and was able to get an additional city cash pass for Novemeber11 through November 15. I was able to grab 3 staple items:
Scoop Tee- Orginal Price $18.95 Paid $9.95

.

Brown Croc Belt- Original Price $19.95 Paid $11.97

My Favorite buy for today:`

Sleeveless Ruffle Dress: Orginal Price $42.95Paid $12.88

Let me tell you, this dress is awesome!! It's soft, light and fits perfectly in all the right places.

Today's Savings: $57.05

I can do math I promise. I had an additional $10.00 in savings thanks to my savings pass.

Janet Jackson (Miss Jackson if you're nasty) looked simple and chic at the Ralph Lauren show during New York Fashion week. Her look was very clean and fitting for several occasions from work Monday morning to church on you respective day of worship. I put together this look for less. I could find 3 out of 6 of these items in my closet and you probably could as well.

Head on over to your local New York and Company (NY&Co) store and pick up your very own savings pass (SP). The SP is valid from September 24 to October 4. NY&Co issues these usually 3 or 4 times a quarter with different spend thresholds. This particular one is as follows:

Spend $30- take $10 off
Spend $60- take $25 off
Spend $90- take $40 off

The awesome thing about this is it doesn't matter what you purchase on that day clearance included, you will get the entire dollar amount off. So let’s do the math ladies. Really easy, buy $90 worth of merchandise but you only pay $50. NY&Co is almost letting me rob them blind and I like it. So now you're probably asking "Jan-nini, how can I get my own SP?" Well its really simple walk into NY&Co and buy something, anything, and you get the SP stapled to your receipt. It's that easy.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I've been seeing these necklaces popping up so much more lately. The "bib necklace" is big, bold and fabulous. It's a nice way to make an outfit just pop. If your outfit is already colorful or embellished sometimes it is best to keep your accessories fairly simply.

Let me introduce Follicle Times. In this segment I will discuss hair matters. I really don't take an active role in caring for my hair. My hair is fairly long and I really like it. However, I don't show my hair as much love as I really should. So now I'm in search of healthy, thicker and even longer hair. Right now I am relaxed. I only relax my hair around 3 to 4 times per year. I don't have much of a regimen at this time but I have learned it's very important to build one. This week I washed and air dried my hair. I'm trying some new things I haven't before and testing the results. I've been researching this for quite some time and I promise to try and explain some of the popular hair lingo as I go. If something isn't clear, please ask. If I don't know the answer I know exactly where to go to find it. This is going to be a fairly long post with tons of pictures so hang in there with me. Ok here we go

This is my hair at a little over 8 weeks post relaxer (8 weeks since my last perm). As you can probably see, my ends are severely damaged.

I went into my cupboard and whipped out all the products I've held on to. If I still have it then I liked it and it had to work well previously.

This time I decided to do a DC (deep conditioning treatment). I'll be doing a separate review for each of the products I used this time in a separate post later this week. I used the Nexxus phyto organics Theratin extreme moisture shampoo and the Profectiv deep strengthening deep conditioner. I sat under the hair dryer with a plastic cap for about 30 minutes or so.
Here is my hair wet after the DC

I use these products after the washing and conditioning are finished.

For air drying, I wrap the front of my hair to make it flat and leave the rest out.

This is it all dried.

Everything all dry

Things to look forward to from Follicle Times

Product Reviews

Hair progress updates

Instructional videos (when I figure stuff out)

Update: Sorry about the formatting of this post. Still getting used to blogger. I promise this will improve with time.- Jan-NiNI

Monday, September 21, 2009

Today was an accessory day. I usually only purchase accessories right before an event I have to attend. I've recently taken on a different mindset. Why not buy it when it's on sale until the occasion arises? So that's what I'll be doing from now on. So I went to Sears in the Coral Square Mall and I hit pay dirt. I only picked up a few items but if I had more money to burn I could've gotten so much more. Anyway here are "Today’s Buys":

Studio by dauplaise: Original Price $15.00..Paid $1.99

Apostrophe: Orginal Price $12.00.....Paid $1.99

Apostrophe: Original Price $8.00..... Paid $1.99

Studio by dauplaise: Original Price $15.00..Paid $1.99

Unknown: Orginal Price $15.00........ Paid $1.99

........ My favorite deal of the day
LineaR: Original Price $36.00Paid $4.99

Sunday, September 20, 2009

I've always had generally great experiences with Avon products, with the occasional miss. I have very dry skin and the only body lotion that gives me enough moisture without the sticky feeling is Avon's Moisture Therapy Intensive Body Lotion. It retails for $7.99 but I usually buy it when it gets marked down to around $4.99. Avon has awesome deals happening right now at Avon.com.

What is considered inexpensive for clothing?

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